Chris Caffery: House Of Insanity

Traditional/Thrash Metal

Rating: 3.0/5.0

For most metalheads guitarist Chris Caffery needs no introduction. On top of a stellar solo career, Caffery has been tearing up the fret board for Savatage, Doctor Butcher, and Trans Siberian Orchestra for the last three decades. Although I'd be lying if I said I was a huge fan of those bands, I have enjoyed a lot of Caffery's solo material, especially his last album - 2007's 'Pins And Needles' - so I was looking forward to his newest creation 'House Of Insanity.'

Right from the get-go, something doesn't seem quite right. The opening track 'Seasons Change' almost sounds more like an old hair-metal throwback than the brutally heavy compositions I've come to know and love from Caffery's earlier releases. I was willing to give him a mulligan on that one, especially after the next two songs, the title track and "I Won't Know,' picked it up a bit. But after those tunes, which are easily the highlight of this disc, the songs fall back into a ho-hum rut that the album just never recovers from. To me, most of this disc sounds more like something you'd expect Savatage to release, rather than their over-the-top guitarist.

There's nothing really horrible here, but there's nothing killer either. Overall, this is a collection of middle-of-the-road songs and before the album was even over, I was ready to move on to something else. Maybe 'House Of Insanity' is an attempt to draw more Savatage fans to Chris Caffery's solo work. But even at that, it is a step back from what we've come to expect from this guitar hero. Although it has its moments, 'House Of Insanity' is largely disappointing.

In Short

There's nothing really horrible here, but there's nothing killer either. Overall, this is a collection of middle-of-the-road songs and before the album was even over, I was ready to move on to something else. Although it has its moments, 'House Of Insanity' is largely disappointing.

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